Insurers schooled on fire risks assessment

President of Ghana Insurers Association (GIA) Mr Ivan Avereyireh has advised insurance practitioners and brokers not to denigrate other companies when delivering services, instead they should talk about the positive side of their counterparts.

He said practitioners should not bad-mouth other companies but rather communicate the good story of insurance to clients and the public.

“We can only improve upon the reputation and image of insurance practitioners in Ghana by equipping our staff and practitioners with the knowledge and skills to ensure they approach their work with a high sense of professionalism and adherence to high critical standards in all our dealings and engagements with the insuring public,” he said.

Mr Ivan gave the advice at the launch of a three-day ‘Building Fire Risk Assessment Seminar”, organised by the GIA for its members, members of Ghana Insurance Brokers Association and personnel from Ghana National Fire Service in Accra on Tuesday.

The seminar is to equip fire insurance underwriters, fire risk surveyors and assessors, and brokers with skills and tools critical for the effective performance of their professional duties.

The GIA president said the actions, inactions, omissions and commissions of practitioners fuel negative public perception about the industry and urged the participants to take the training serious to improve on their horizon.

Ms Lydia Lariba Bawa, Commissioner of Insurance commended the GIA President for pursuing the agenda of building the professional capacity of staff of member companies.

She said: “Insurance is about insurance companies assuming risks and getting paid for it and prudent and profitable underwriting however depends largely on how accurately the risk is surveyed and assessed.”

“It is through the risk assessment process that we can evaluate the degree of the risk in terms of severity and frequency which would lead us to estimating the cost of potential claims, which in turn would influence the premium we charge,” she explained.

Ms Bawa said gone are the days when underwriting and rating of almost all the risks are presided by a risk survey and assessment report either from the broker or the insurers own professionally trained and highly competent risks surveyors but that could not be said of now.

She therefore expressed the need of all parties to take a proactive role in risk management and loss control as it would undoubtedly have a significant impact on insurance rates.

Mr Nat Adu, President of Ghana Insurers Brokers Association said the seminar is of great importance to the association as it would give technical understanding of the insurance and fire risk assessment business.

He said it would also help brokers identify risk, understand the risk, know who and what will be affected by the risk, and put in measures to mitigate effects of the risk.

At the end of the seminar, practitioners are expected to be able to comfortably understand the various aspects of fire risk assessments and find ways of mitigating risks, and a standard would be set with which everybody would agree to, when fire risk is assessed.